Australian Democrats

The Australian Democrats are a social liberal political party in Australia, founded in 1977. The party was founded by splintergroups of the Liberal Party of Australia, and former Liberal politician Don Chipp was the party's inaugural leader. At its peak from 1999 to 2002, it held 9/76 Senate seats, but it never secured a seat in the lower house. The centrist Democrats occupied the middle ground between the Liberal Party and the Australian Labor Party, and both parties vied for the Democrats' support for contentious legislation.